Sir, – Tomás Ó Ruairc of the Teaching Council makes the point that his organisation has well-established processes that candidates for teacher training courses may follow to make up for shortfalls in their respective college courses (July 9th). This, in response to a candidate (Dr Helene Suttle, July 5th) with a degree and PhD in engineering, shows the council to be ignorant of mathematical rigour required to acquire these degrees. Indeed, as a PhD student, Dr Suttle may have tutored or taught undergraduate mathematics students that could apply for a teacher-training course – suitably qualified to teach the future teachers but not the second-level student?!
Candidates of this calibre should not be refused consideration by these, frankly, idiotic rules – second-level students deserve the widest range of mathematically trained teachers. Change the rules! – Yours, etc,